Ruth's Report: Where's Senator Gillibrand?

Britni de la Cretaz (REFINARY 29) takes on THE NEW YORK TIMES' hit piece on Tara Reade:

Even still, as the Times and The Washington Post have finally begun to report on the allegation, the outlets have received pushback for not treating Reade’s story with the same lens as other post-Me Too stories. The Times story says that no “former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation,” despite later reporting that two interns did confirm that she was abruptly removed from supervising them, corroborating a detail of Reade’s story. Editor-in-Chief Dean Baquet also admitted to editing a line in the story at the behest of the Biden campaign.

But, beyond media attention to Reade's allegation, Ocasio-Cortez affirms that there is more significance in hearing Reade’s story than just the accusation alone. "A lot of us are survivors, and it's really, really hard and uncomfortable," Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that choosing not to talk about the allegations is the "exact opposite of integrity." It’s "not okay" to prioritize beating Trump over discussing ugly and sensitive accusations against the other candidate, she said, because those issues are "very legitimate thing[s]."

Good for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. I wish others had a spine. I am very disappointed in Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, for example.

I cannot believe the silence from supposed women-supporting women.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Fake asses like Michelle Goldberg who attack Tara Reade were never feminists to begin with. Ask Michelle when she ever wrote one word about Abeer?

Starting in the US where so many feel they know so much. Damon Linker, for example. Who? Exactly. He's a 'professor.' Like everything else about him, that credit is inflated. He's a "Visiting Associate Professor." Can you get more removed from a professor? No, not really without stamping him with a date for leaving the university. He's also a former speech writer for Rudy G -- which demonstrates that he's never had any ethics or real talent. At THE WEEK, he scribbles a series of lies including that Tara "Reade's accusation against Biden is flimsier than Blasey Ford's." No, it's not.

Dr. Blasey Ford could never establish -- with witnesses -- her time with Kavanaugh. Tara's employment for then-Senator Joe Biden is an established fact with even those still on Joe's payroll (his campaign now, not his Senate office) aware that she worked in the office. I have not had anyone from Tara's camp call me up and say, "You won't believe what they're threatening me with if I don't agree to repeat their lies." I can't say the same for Dr. Blasey Ford's camp. Dr. Blasey Ford's tale started off in the supreme realm and then, as other voices were added, became this fantasy world of gang rapes. Now that's not on Blasey Ford herself but as a criminal pretending to be a fair and concerned attorney raked up the drama, this did effect Blasey Ford's story as well.

Tara Reade didn't originally detail every incident between herself and Joe Biden? I believe anyone who knows anything about assault is aware that happens. I believe we saw it in testimony against Harvey Weinstein at his trial. B-b-b-ut sometimes she said nice things about Joe!!!! Didn't Harvey's attorney use the same tactic to try to discredit the witnesses against him?

Here's the ignorant 'professor' Linker:

As I wrote at the time of the Kavanaugh hearings, we knew nothing for certain about what, if anything, happened between the nominee and Blasey Ford when they were in high school. I found the latter to be a credible witness. When paired with Kavanaugh's bizarre, unhinged, wildly defensive, and dishonest response to her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I concluded that, on balance, the best option was for his nomination to be withdrawn and for the president to nominate an alternative conservative jurist to the high court in his place. But I never for a moment supposed that I knew for certain that Kavanaugh had done what Blasey Ford accused him of doing.

Withdraw his nomination? Oh, that was fair of you. (That's sarcasm.) You didn't know what was going on. But you found Blasey Ford to be a credible witness? I didn't. But if you thought Kananaugh should have withdrawn since we'd never know for sure, that should be your same outlook with Joe Biden. And Joe has harassed women. Invading their space, grabbing them from behind, rubbing his nose against their nose, sniffing their hair . . . UPOLITICS notes, "Reade is one of seven women who came forward who came forward last year to accuse Biden of inappropriate touching, kissing, hugging or other unwanted behavior." If Linker doesn't get that this is assault and inappropriate, I have a feeling the college may need to order him to attend a seminar on harassment.

Little Dick Linker isn't fit to write about assault. Doubt me? His article has nothing to do with assault. It's all about how mean Republicans are saying this and that. Those would be the same Republicans he used to work with, remember. Republicans aren't the story. Tara Reade says Joe Biden assaulted her and Joe Biden has refused to publicly respond. He's hidden behind press releases and campaign staffers -- and female staffers at that, like Kate Bedingfield. That's reality. The press has allowed him to get away with that. That's also reality.

Micro Penis Linker goes to town on Tara Reade to defend Joe Biden and yet Joe himself can't say a word. It's all so very interesting. Like the loony astroturf one Biden supporter keeps getting printed as "letters to the editor." We see you, Genevieve, you're not fooling anyone. We saw your racism when you advocated for Joe on behalf of his praise for and his work with segregationists. We know you're a liar, we know you're a racist. We don't really need to hear from you and your state outlets should stop printing your letters since a careful review of them indicates you will lie about anything.

Emily Larsen (WASHINGTON EXAMINER) note, "Through three fully public interviews and other reports from those who interviewed the woman, Tara Reade, her description of harassment in Biden’s office and sexual assault by Biden is substantively consistent. Her brother and two unnamed friends say they remember hearing about either the assault or harassment at the time. Two interns confirm that she was abruptly removed from supervising them."

Scott Morefiled (THE DAILY CALLER) notes:

Fox News anchor Howard Kurtz criticized the lack of media enthusiasm for covering someone who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Special Report” with Bret Baier,” the “Media Buzz” anchor then called out several major media outlets for making “no on air mention” of former Senate staffer Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against her former boss.
[. . .]
While The Washington Post interviewed Reade last year, the outlet “did not run a story until Monday” after The New York Times ran theirs “19 days after she went public,” Kurtz noted.

The Fox News host quoted Times executive executive editor Dean Baquet as saying Kavanaugh was treated differently because “he was already in a public forum in a large way.” But with Biden, then a Democratic front-runner, they weren’t “in a heated race with the clock ticking.”

Actually, they were in "a heated race" -- the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. As for Kavanaugh being "already in a public forum in a large way" -- Joe Biden's adult life has been a non-stop public forum. He was sworn in as a US Senator in January of 1973. He only left the Senate when he became Vice President (January 2009 through January 2017). He's been officially running for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination since April 2019.

We're noting Howie for two reasons -- first, he's a media critic of many decades, second, he was the media critic for THE WASHINGTON POST -- and he was the only one to take on THE POST's failure in the lead up to the Iraq War.

Dan MacLaughlin (THE NATIONAL REVIEW) offers strong criticism of THE NEW YORK TIMES efforts to ignore the story until Easter Sunday:

When Biden entered the presidential race in April 2019, he was faced with a flurry of accusations by various women he’d interacted with over the years. The charges had a common thread: Biden has long been too free with his hands, with physical contact such as hugging and kissing and touching and smelling women’s hair, without regard for their personal space or consent. When the Times editorial board met with Biden in January, it asked him no questions about any of this, but it did press him over not being sufficiently aggressive in supporting Anita Hill’s sexual-harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas in 1991.
Tara Reade was one of the women who accused Biden in early 2019, but at the time, she did not accuse Biden of sexually assaulting her by penetrating her with his hands under her skirt, as she has now. Biden has never been asked personally to respond to Reade’s allegation. The Times assigned multiple reporters to the story but printed his campaign’s formal denials without addressing whether it had asked Biden himself to comment. Its report expressed no concerns that there has been inadequate investigation of the charge.
Smith started off by asking Baquet why it took until April 12 for the Times to even mention the allegations, which were made in a podcast interview on March 25 and reported at National Review and elsewhere within days:

Lots of people covered it as breaking news at the time. And I just thought that nobody other than The Intercept was actually doing the reporting to help people figure out what to make of it. . . . Mainly I thought that what The New York Times could offer and should try to offer was the reporting to help people understand what to make of a fairly serious allegation against a guy who had been a vice president of the United States and was knocking on the door of being his party’s nominee. Look, I get the argument. Just do a short, straightforward news story. But I’m not sure that doing this sort of straightforward news story would have helped the reader understand. Have all the information he or she needs to think about what to make of this thing.

So much for “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” This does not pass the laugh-out-loud test. Does any sentient being believe that the Times would have waited more than two weeks to even mention such an allegation against a Republican or conservative figure, while it tried to figure out how to tell its readers what “he or she needs to think about what to make of this thing”? Recall its wall-to-wall instant coverage of the Trump “Access Hollywood” tape, which by the next day had a full news analysis by Maggie Haberman asking why Trump had not apologized yet.

In Kavanaugh’s case, on September 14, 2018, before Christine Blasey Ford had even put her name to a public allegation against Kavanaugh, the Times published a 31-paragraph story on the then-anonymous charge.

Last night, in "F**k you, Michelle Goldberg and the anti-woman pony you rode in on," we addressed NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg's nonsense. One more thing that needs to be noted? Michelle wrote this:

The truth is, if Blasey had been so inconsistent in telling her story, feminists might still have believed her, but they likely wouldn’t have made her a cause célèbre, and Democrats on Capitol Hill never would have invited her to testify publicly. Advocates for victims of sexual harassment and assault would worry that using such an ambiguous case as a political weapon would undermine their cause.

In other words, Michelle, you only support women who already have support. That's not feminism. But you know what it is? It's listening to the screams of a woman and doing nothing. If Michelle had heard Kitty Genovese scream as she was stabbed, Michelle would have let the woman die without even calling the police because there was no polling data and she wasn't sure which way the press would lean on the stabbing of Kitty Genovese.

In Michelle's distorted and disgusting mind, feminists should only step up to defend women if they are already being defended by the MSM and can be used to advance a cause.

That's not justice and it's certainly not feminism.

Michelle Goldberg's not a feminist. She's a bitchy woman with a bad wig -- I hope it's a wig, no human hair has ever looked like that. She's a bitchy woman who attacked the peace movement in 2002 because it wasn't up to her high White and vanilla standards. Like most trash, she knows she's worthless so she tries to run with a pack while pretending she's brave. There's nothing brave or feminist about Michelle Goldberg. She's a well-off White woman telling tales of comfort that sometimes focus for a second or two on women so people pretend she's a feminist.

A real feminist would be writing about what's happening to women in Iraq, for example. But Michelle's not a real feminist.

Back to Goldberg, if you don't get how stupid Michelle is, read this column where she endorses Tom Ricks' false claim that counter-insurgency efforts weren't in place in Iraq and she endorses counter-insurgency -- a war on a nation's own people. We've long covered the illegal and inhumane counter-insurgency efforts by the US government in Iraq. Michelle doesn't know a damn thing about any thing -- not even how to pick out a wig that fits her head.

But if you're still not getting how Michelle is not a feminist, one word: Abeer.

The rape and killing of 14 year old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi by US soldiers // Thread:

Here's the thread discussing the gang-rape and murder of Abeer and the murder of her parents and kid sister.

We covered that story repeatedly, over and over. Michelle Goldberg was never bothered enough by the gang-rape of a teenage girl to cover the story.

We're going to end with "War Criminal Steven D. Green dies in prison" from February 18, 2014 -- in full:

War Criminal Steven D. Green is dead. AP's Brett Barrouquere, who has long covered Green, reports the 28-year-old Green was found dead in his Arizona prison cell on Saturday and that, currently, the operating belief is that it was a case of suicide.

May 7, 2009 Steven D. Green (pictured above) was convicted for his crimes in the March 12, 2006 gang-rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, the murder of her parents and the murder of her five-year-old sister while Green was serving in Iraq. Green was found to have killed all four, to have participated in the gang-rape of Abeer and to have been the ringleader of the conspiracy to commit the crimes and the conspiracy to cover them up. May 21, 2009, the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty.

Alsumaria explained, "An ex-US soldier was found guilty for raping an Iraqi girl and killing her family in 2006 while he might face death sentence. . . . Eye witnesses have reported that Green shot dead the girl’s family in a bedroom while two other soldiers were raping her. Then, Green raped her in his turn and put a pillow on her face before shooting her. The soldiers set the body afire to cover their crime traces."

Evan Bright reported on the verdict:

As the jury entered the court room, Green(red sweater vest) let out a large sigh, not of relief, but seemingly of anxiety, knowing the weight of the words to come. As Judge Thomas Russell stated "The court will now publish the verdict," Green interlaced his fingers and clasped them over his chin. Russell read the verdict flatly and absolutely. Green went from looking down at each "guilty" to eyeing the jury. His shoulders dropped as he was convicted of count #11, aggravated sexual abuse, realizing what this means. A paralegal at the defense table consoled Green by patting him on his back, even herself breaking down crying at the end of the verdicts.
After Russell finished reading the verdicts, he begged questions of the respective attorneys. Wendelsdorf, intending to ensure the absolution of the verdict, requested the jury be polled. Honorable Judge Russell asked each juror if they agreed with these verdicts, receiving a simple-but-sufficient yes from all jurors. Green watched the jury flatly.

From the September 4th, 2009 snapshot:

Turning to the United States and what may be the only accountability for the crimes in Iraq. May 7th Steven D. Green (pictured above) was convicted for his crimes in March 12, 2006 gang-rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, the murder of her parents and the murder of her five-year-old sister while Green was serving in Iraq. Green was found to have killed all four, to have participated in the gang-rape of Abeer and to have been the ringleader of the conspiracy to commit the crimes and the conspiracy to cover them up. May 21st, the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty and instead kicking in sentence to life in prison. Today, Green stood before US District Judge Thomas B. Russell for sentencing. Kim Landers (Australia's ABC) quotes Judge Russell telling Green his actions were "horrifying and inexcusable." Not noted in any of the links in this snapshot (it comes from a friend present in the court), Steven Dale Green has dropped his efforts to appear waif-ish in a coltish Julia Roberts circa the 1990s manner. Green showed up a good twenty pounds heavier than he appeared when on trial, back when the defense emphasized his 'lanky' image by dressing him in oversized clothes. Having been found guilty last spring, there was apparently no concern that he appear frail anymore.

Italy's AGI reports, "Green was recognised as the leader of a group of five soldiers who committed the massacre on September 12 2006 at the Mahmudiyah check point in the south of Baghdad. The story inspired the 2007 masterpiece by Brian De Palma 'Redacted'." BBC adds, "Judge Thomas Russell confirmed Green would serve five consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole." Deborah Yetter (Courier-Journal) explains, "Friday's federal court hearing was devoted mostly to discussion of technical issues related to Green's sentencing report, although it did not change Green's sentence. He was convicted in May of raping and murdering Abeer al-Janabi, 14, and murdering her parents, Kassem and Fakhriya, and her sister, Hadeel, 6, at their home outside Baghdad."

Green was tried in civilian court because he had already been discharged before the War Crimes were discovered. Following the gang-rape and murders, US soldiers attempted to set fire to Abeer's body to destroy the evidence and attempted to blame the crimes on "insurgents." In real time, when the bodies were discovered, the New York Times was among the outlets that ran with "insurgents." Green didn't decide he wanted to be in the military on his own. It was only after his most recent arrest -- after a long string of juvenile arrests -- while sitting in jail and fearing what sentence he would face, that Green decided the US Army was just the place he wanted to be. Had he been imprisoned instead or had the US military followed rules and guidelines, Green wouldn't have gotten in on a waiver. Somehow his history was supposed to translate into "He's the victim!!!!" As if he (and the others) didn't know rape was a crime, as if he (and the others) didn't know that murder was considered wrong. Green attempted to climb up on the cross again today. AP's Brett Barrouguere quotes the 'victim' Green insisting at today's hearing, "You can act like I'm a sociopath. You can act like I'm a sex offender or whatever. If I had not joined the Army, if I had not gone to Iraq, I would not have got caught up in anything." Climb down the cross, drama queen. Your entire life was about leading up to a moment like that. You are a sociopath. You stalked a 14-year-old Iraqi girl while you were stationed at a checkpoint in her neighborhood. You made her uncomfortable and nervous, you stroked her face. She ran to her parents who made arrangements for her to go live with others just to get her away from you, the man the army put there to protect her and the rest of the neighborhood. You are one sick f**k and you deserve what you got. Green play drama queen and insist "you can act like I'm a sex offender" -- he took part in and organized a gang-rape of a 14-year-old girl. That's a sex offender. In fact, "sex offender" is a mild term for what Green is.

Steven D. Green made the decision to sign up for the US military. He was facing criminal punishment for his latest crimes, but he made the decision. Once in the military, despite his long history of arrests, he didn't see it as a chance to get a fresh start. He saw it as a passport for even more crimes. What he did was disgusting and vile and it is War Crimes and by doing that he disgraced himself and the US military. His refusal to take accountability today just demonstrates the realities all along which was Green did what he wanted and Green has no remorse. He sullied the name of the US military, he sullied the name of the US. As a member of the army, it was his job to follow the rules and the laws and he didn't do so. And, as a result, a retaliation kidnapping of US soldiers took place in the spring of 2006 and those soldiers were strung up and gutted. That should weigh heavily on Steven D. Green but there's no appearance that he's ever thought of anyone but himself. He wants to act as if the problem was the US military which requires that you then argue that anyone serving in Iraq could have and would have done what he did. That is not reality. He does not represent the average soldier and he needs to step down from the cross already.

AFP notes, "During closing arguments at his sentencing, Green was described alternately as 'criminal and perverse' and deserving of the death penalty, and as a 'broken warrior" whose life should be spared'." Brett Barrouquere (AP) has been covering the story for years now. He notes that Patrick Bouldin (defense) attempted to paint Green as the victim as well by annoucing that Green wanted to take responsibility "twice" before but that Assistant US Attorney Marisa Ford explained that was right before jury selection began and in the midst of jury selection. In other words, when confronted with the reality that he would be going to trial, Steven D. Green had a panic moment and attempted to make a deal with the prosecution. (The offer was twice rejected because the 'life in prison' offer included the defense wanting Green to have possible parole.) Steve Robrahn, Andrew Stern and Paul Simao (Reuters) quote US Brig Gen Rodney Johnson ("Commanding General of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command") stating, "We sincerely hope that today's sentencing helps to bring the loved ones of this Iraqi family some semblance of closure and comfort after this horrific and senseless act."

Green went into the military to avoid criminal charges on another issue. He was one of many that the military lowered the standards for.

May 28, 2009, the family of Abeer gave their statements to the court before leaving to return to Iraq. WHAS11 (text and video) reported on the court proceedings:

Gary Roedemeier: Crimes were horrific. A band of soldiers convicted of planning an attack against an Iraqi girl and her family.

Melissa Swan: The only soldier tried in civilian court is Steven Green. The Fort Campbell soldier was in federal court in Louisville this morning, facing the victims' family and WHAS's Renee Murphy was in that courtroom this morning. She joins us live with the information and also more on that heart wrenching scene of when these family members faced the man who killed their family.

Renee Murphy: I mean, they came face to face with the killer. Once again, the only thing different about this time was that they were able to speak with him and they had an exchange of dialogue and the family is here from Iraq and they got to ask Steven Green all the questions they wanted answered. They looked each other in the eye. Green appeared calm and casual in court. The victims' family, though, outraged, emotional and distraught. Now cameras were not allowed in the courtroom so we can't show video of today's hearing but here's an account of what happened. (Video begins] This is a cousin of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl raped and killed by Steven Green. He and other family members in this SUV were able to confront Green in federal court this morning. Their words were stinging and came from sheer grief. Former Fort Campbell soldier Steven Green was convicted of killing an Iraqi mother, father and their young daughter. He then raped their 14-year-old daughter, shot her in the head and set her body on fire. Today the victim's family was able to give an impact statement at the federal court house the young sons of the victims asked Green why he killed their father. an aunt told the court that "wounds are still eating at our heart" and probably the most compelling statements were from the girls' grandmother who sobbed from the stand and demanded an explanation from Green. Green apologized to the family saying that he did evil things but he is not an evil person. He says that he was drunk the night of the crimes in 2006 and he was following the orders of his commanding officers. In his statement, Green said if it would bring these people back to life I would do everything I could to make them execute me. His statement goes on to say, "Before I went to Iraq, I never thought I would intentionally kill a civilian. When I was in Iraq, something happened to me that I can only explain by saying I lost my mind. I stopped seeing Iraqis as good and bad, as men, women and children. I started seeing them all as one, and evil, and less than human." Green didn't act alone. His codefendants were court-martialed and received lesser sentences. Green will be formally sentenced to life in prison in September. [End of videotape.] The answers that Green gave were not good enough for some of the family members. at one point today, the grandmother of the young girls who were killed left the podium and started walking towards Green as he sat at the defendant's table shouting "Why!" She was forcibly then escorted to the back of the court room by US Marshalls. She then fell to the ground and buried her face in her hands and began to cry again. The family pleaded with the court for the death sentence for Green. but you can see Green's entire statement to the court on our website whas11.com and coming up tonight at six o'clock, we're going to hear from Green's attorneys.

Steven D. Green was convicted of War Crimes.

Others should have been as well. The fact that others were not does not make Green any less of a War Criminal.

He killed an entire family and Abeer could hear her parents and sister being killed in the other room as she was gang-raped. Then Green came in and took his turn in the gang-rape before killing her. 14-years-old and she's gang-raped as she hears her family killed and then she's killed herself at the end of it.

At which point, Green attempted to set Abeer's body on fire to destroy the evidence.

It was originally reported as an act of 'terrorism' and blamed on Iraqis.

It was only after Iraqis retaliated on US service members

The following sites updated: